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Arena" GEORGE F. MCINDOE AND JAMES MANUFACTU RE OF. wooo- W. McINDoE, or EVERETT, MASS.

GRAIN PAPER, CLOTH, 84-0.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 295,658, dated March 25, 1884:.

Application filed November 8, 1883. (Specimens) exact description.

This invention relates to the art'of manufacturing paper, cloth, leather, &c., finished to represent the finished surface of natural woods, as hereinafter specified.

In practicing the process we prepare the wood the surface of which we desire to transfer by making it level, plane, and smooth; but we do not fill the grain of the wood, or finish it in any other respect. The surface of the wood is then covered with printers ink, and white paper of the proper size and quality is then placed upon the inked surface of the wood and compressed uniformly thereon sufficiently to obtain a print therefrom. This print will show all the depressions of the wood which make the lines of the grain, knots, &c., in white, while the remainder of the surface of the wood will be represented by the black lines orfield. The print thus formed is used in obtaining an elcctrotype by the photo-electrotype or any similar process, and the electrotype thus furnished will show the grain, knots, &c., in relief,-and it is known as the key or outline block. This electrotype is used in connection with another and preferably engraved plate,'which prints upon the paper, 850., what we term the stains or middle colors of the wood, and this engraved plate includes that portion of the surface of the wood between the grain and not transferred to the grain or key-plate.

In printing the paper or cloth we first select or make paper, cloth, or leather which has the natural color or tint-of the body of the wood. This can be done either by coloring the paper during its manufacture, or by printing the color or tint thereon, and upon the paper thus prepared we print whatwe have termed the stain or middle color, by

7 means of the middle-stain plate, in a color to represent the color of such portions or stains of the natural wood, and this will represent l upon the body-color the sections of the surface of the wood between the lines or grains. We then print by the electrotype, in still darker color, the grain or lines of the wood, and as these are a facsimile of the original or natural grain or lines, thenatural effects in substance and character of the wood as indicated by its grain or by knots or burl-wood is reproduced uponthe paper or cloth.

e do not confine ourselves to the means described of obtaining the electrotype-plates, especially in obtaining a substantial. facsimile of wood, for we have ascertained that we can photograph upon box -wood or other wood used by engravers the grain or lines of the wood object sufiioiently distinct to enable it to be used by the engraver in accurately engraving the lines or grain therein. In case we use this method of transferring we prefer to darken the grain or lines of the wood as much as possible before photographing it, in order that there may be a sufficient contrast between the grain or lines and the remaining portion of the surface of the wood to enable a photograph to be taken, and an easy vayof so darkening the grain is by slightly wetting in water immediately before taking the photograph. Of course, in lieu of making an impression of the grain of the wood by printers ink and paper, in the manner above specified, we can use the wood as a die, so to speak, and impress in plasterof-paris or stereotypers clay the grain or lines, which will be a negative of the pattern, and from which an obverse in lead or stereotypemetal may be obtained, and from which another electrotype,which may be termed a relief, shall be obtained, as above specified. In lieu of this method of preparing the key and stain plates, the wood object may be used as a model and the grain or lines and intermediate sections copied upon the engraven blocks and cut therein.

The key-block may be used as a model in determining the stain-block by photographing it thereon, or in any of the usual ways.

i As some woods have more than one stain or representing them, to prepare as many stainand to print therewith upon the paper, &c.,

of the grains or natural lines of certain classes plates as there are colors or differences in tints,

middle color, it will be necessary, for properly IOO in the various colors or tints of the original I able material of a color which shall appr'oxia wood. I p

More delicate effects may be produced by printing the middle stains from stone or electrotypes taken therefrom, and in preparing this stone the key-plate may be used for transferring the grain thereto. The stains are then engraved thereon, and the grain removed or destroyed.

We are aware that the British Patent No. 3,057 of 1857, to Strathcr, mentions a trans: fer from the natural grain obtained by impressing the same in gutta-percha. We are also aware of the British Patent No. 1,432 of 1867, to H 0. Baildon, which describes a method of transferring by means of a lithographic stone; also, of the British Patent No. 779 of 1873, which refers not only to a lithographic-but to a zincographic transfer process; also, of the British Patent No.- 3,956 of 1868, which describes a method of forming printing-surfaces from type, 850., by obtaining from the type or other similar article an impression on unsizedand damp paper, and in afterward using this in obtaining an electrotype from this paper mold or matrix; but we consider that these patents do not describe or these inventions embrace the spirit of our discovery.

We describe in a pending application another process of manufacturing woodgrain paper, cloth, &c., in which the impression of the grain. and lines of the wood is impressed in wax and an electrotype taken from the wax impression, which is afterward used in printing upon a material colored or printed to the color or tint of the body of the natural wood.

Having thus fully described our invention, we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States- 1. The art or process of making wood-grain paper, cloth, &c., consisting, first, in obtaining from wood itself an electrotype or engraved facsimile of the grain or natural lines thereof, in the manner described; second, in preparing a stain electrotype or engraved plate that shall represent the stain or color lines of the wood between the lines or grain; third, in taking paper, cloth, or other suitmate the natural color of the wood; fourth,in printing in suitable color thereon the stain, by an electrotype-plate prepared 'as described, or representation of the wood between the grain-lines; and, fifth, in subsequently printing in proper color the grain or lines of the natural wood thereon by means of the electrotype or key plate, prepared as specified, all substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a woodgrain paper, cloth, 810., consisting, essentially, of paper, cloth,.leat-her, or other suitable material colored to approximate the color of the natural wood, and having printed thereon the stain or middle colors of the wood and the grain or lines thereof, which represent a facsimile of the grain and lines of the natural wood, and transferred therefrom by the process herein described, substantially as specified.

3. The art of transferring from the natural wood the stains or middle colors and the lines or grain thereof by means of an electrotype key-plate and electrotype stain-plate, prepared as specified, to a flat field of paper,

cloth, or other similar material, all substan tially as and for the purposes described.

4. A paper, cloth, or other similar material colored to represent the natural color of wood and printed with-the stain or middle colors, substantially as specified, and with the grain or natural lines of the wood, as indicated, and varnished or finished to represent a finished wood-surface, substantially as and for the purposes described.

5. In the process of transferring the natural grain of the wood in the art of manufacturing wood-grain paper, &c., the preparation of the wood in the manner described, covering the same with printers ink, and then taking an impression therefrom on white paper, and then taking a photograph from such impression, all substantially as and for the purposes described.

GEORGE F. MOINDOE. JAMES W. MOINDOE. Witnesses:

BOWDOIN S. PARKER, F. F. RAYMOND, 2d. 

